SAO Tales of Aincrad - Chapter 1 - Link Start
by AkihiroTamura
Summary: After a period of disorder in his life, Akihiro Tamura decides to enter a world which thought would always be behind the scenes, abandoning his programmer and student routine life to experiment a VRMMO game (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online) called Sword Art Online.


TALES OF AINCRAD

 **Link Start**

Is dreaming allowed in this world?

I see my parents together and for a moment it seems that I returned to my fourteen years old...

That was good times.

My grandmother saying something about eating and enter the pool just after is not allowed and all my friends and cousins disobeying, we did it for teasing, simply because we like the tone of her voice when angry, sounding cruel and laughing at the same time.

I knew it was impossible to be there but...

\- NO!

It was really impossible but so good...

So it's really possible to dream in this world. Escape from a dream with another seems so confusing inside my head.

But it was the only way I've found to remember the people I love being so long in this world, fighting everyday battles without without sense, against beings which the sole purpose is theoretically eliminate anyone who crossed their paths, is NPC or player.

Wonder that im dreaming when I'm actually not sleeping. I am immersed in a reality of millions of data and bytes.

\- ... Really?

The proof is that I know I must wake up now, which is very painful.

I never had the chance to say goodbye to my grandmother or my father and now every night I have created chances and opportunities, but always run away, just staring and smiling at them.

It is impossible to say goodbye to someone who offers you a chocolate pie. Believe me, I try, every night.

But now people rely on me so i need to go upstairs, collect more resources and recruit more members to the guild, so there i go!

Say goodbye to that dream and go back to that world which I should not feel that I belong but i'm already adapted.

\- Oh, what a beautiful day !

This sun in my eyes… It is one of the best seasons of Aincrad, reminds me of Brazil.

This afternoon i slept outside a safe city in front of a lake full of fishermen on the 12th floor. I should be afraid with so many PKs around, but in a way I feel invincible.

Yesterday defeated the Boss of the 64th floor, it was difficult but we had many players and especially one party fought very well.

The party that had that player...

That they all call beater, he is good and has a unique ability,

those two one-handed swords, they seem useful.

\- There I go, bye guys!

I say bye to the fishermen, at the end they took care of me during my 3 hours nap.

Some players smiled back, some NPCs waved as if they had won the day, which reminds me that many are nicer than real people.

Is it correct to call them NPCs these days?

\- 3 HOURS?

My guild has a date at six o'clock and i'm late, better run!

I could use a teleport crystal but do not know if because of my knowledge of the system or due to experience but, as i run i can watch the scenery and everyone around me, feel the fresh air on my face and fatigue my newly awakened body pushing me against the floor.

\- AAAAAH !

Give a strong push against air and a good high jump, sure of being alive in this virtual reali...

\- No.

This is not just a virtual reality, that's my only reality in the last two years and is the reality that I will belong to end this game and save everyone that i protect, i limit myself to live like this, do not let myself give up because in Aincrad giving up is easy and suggestive.

Feel the air, watching players, run, these things reminds you that you are alive here, because after all they call this game a "Game of Death" but just like in real life, you can only die once.

It would be fair to call the real life also a death game?

I run to the city for nearly fifteen minutes and i see that immensity of villagers gather at the center of a square to sell trinkets to travelers and behind a square with a metal frame, is the portal and that's where i go.

\- Here i go, to the first floor!

I speak aloud this as if the world were mine and gain attention of many around me.

Normal, i always attract attention for the simple fact of not knowing walk around without running.

I enter the portal, lights come up and down on me like a dream. I'm being teleported and I remember how it was the first time I connected to this world, it was a very similar phenomenon.

On that day almost two years ago i chose to enter that world, hoping to make it a refuge, a second reality.

It started with a simple phrase that sometimes i dare to repeat.

A phrase that has brought enormous proportions to, I do not know exactly but i think ten thousand people.

As always comes to me the same desire to repeat that phrase when you step here, as if that could lead me to the real world...

\- Link ... Start.


End file.
